Mono LP: Capitol N-16156 (green label), cut by Jay Maynard

Mono CD: DCC

Stereo CD: MoFi hybrid SACD

A few clips from Brian's performance at Chastain Atlanta (fairly good sound and picture). I didn't take these, but whomever did must not have been sitting far from me.

Heroes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMZ_AF8PYPk

Sloop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9mTPlnMKF0

Surfin' USA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTAlktc1460&feature=related




Mike Love and Dean Torrence, "Be True To Your Bud".....for educational purposes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z9L8tdCdKI

Tomorrow

more like 

Besides the few hits on oldies radio, and "Kokomo" being a current hit during my childhood, my mom's beat-up old copies of Best of The Beach Boys, Vol. 2 (in glorious Duophonic), Fun, Fun, Fun/Dance, Dance, Dance  and  Wow! Great Concert were the first Beach Boys sounds I heard.

Enter 1993. My 15th birthday, gift money in hand at the local record store. I spot the new Beach Boys set among the box sets on the wall. It's a lot of money, and a lot of songs I've never heard of, but I put down the fifty or so dollars for it and add it to my growing collection.

Instant gratification. The five discs are in constant rotation for weeks. To paraphrase a line from Brian's pseudobiography, "one thought raced through my mind. More. I had to get more" Beach Boys.

I found a royalty check in my bathrobe.....right....My next purchase was Pet Sounds. And then the 1990's 2-fers. A few of the Caribou CD's when I could find them second-hand. Some of those pricey Ocean of Songs discs. And most everything else since then.

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

Japanese "Pastmasters" (Toshiba/EMI CP21-6013).

If you have vinyl capability, try the mono Capitol green-label reissue from 1981 (Capitol SN-16159).

Thanks a lot I'll go dig around for those

No problem, Shady.

A well-known audio engineer refers to the Pastmasters discs as "flat transfers" from the Capitol masters. I personally think he's full of merda (and ego), but the CD is the best-sounding Wild Honey I've heard. Most of the Pastmasters Beach Boys CD's sound great compared to the 2-fer's, EXCEPT for Pet Sounds, avoid that one.

While we have a WH topic..

Personally I think the 2 fer sounds terrible, sound wise is that the best out there or is there a better sounding release to buy?

Japanese "Pastmasters" (Toshiba/EMI CP21-6013).

If you have vinyl capability, try the mono Capitol green-label reissue from 1981 (Capitol SN-16159).

Am I the only one who finds this album to be ten times more interesting than SMiLE (in any form)?

Most likely. Damn fine album though.

[has]

There's no way that it's Billy Strange.

But it has to be... Carol says so.

I wonder if you would be so derisive to this woman in person as you and others often are on this board? 

Given the fact that she has flat-out lied and taken credit for other people's work on many occasions, I'd have no problem doing so either.

I've read a few schools of thought on what instrument plays the WIBN intro.

Carol Kaye claims it was Billy Strange (who's not listed on the AFM sheet) and/or Jerry Cole on 12-string guitar. I don't need to say much about Carol's claims.

I've read others who say it's an electric mandolin or a ukelele played by Barney Kessel.  I've heard the term "Vox Mandoguitar" thrown around. Anyone heard of it?

15 little ones? more like 15

I liked "East Meets West" and "Wipe Out" as a kid. It's almost embarrassing to listen to them now.

Awesoman, you and I were two of the (maybe) 500 in attendance last night. I was a bit disappointed that more people didn't show up. Maybe the heat kept them away?

Good show from BW and band. Heavy on the pre-PS hits, but I went in knowing that. Nice to hear "Add Some Music".

It was 95°F at showtime last night...not one word of complaint from Brian or band. Brian did have a nice big fan blowing on him.

I see the latest post is basically wall to wall tecchie jargon. Maybe you should post that someone's asked around and been told Capitol had nothing to do with it ? 

Done.

I haven't been on the Hoffman forum lately, at one point the Smile Box conversation was up to 4000 posts....on a set we have no official information on!

[So.....how is the MUSIC on the disc???]

OK, this from a highly placed, reliable source - nothing to do with Capitol.

Makes sense, and I trust AGD's word.

Notice I posed this question in post #14 of the BSN thread:

"So.....how is the MUSIC on the disc???"

....and got no reply from the OP. Just another diatribe on CD burning.

I posted another question directed at the OP requesting photographic proof. A lot of BS'ing goes on at BSN.

[That's the only stereo "GV" mix that Mark's done.]

From the comment, I'm guessing it's the stereo track that was first issued on the 1993 box and revamped for the "GV" 40th Anniversary CD single. That's the only stereo "GV" mix that Mark's done. What was on the RSD 78s was mono.

The poster on the BSN board is referring to Mark Mathews, not Mark Linett. Track 1 on the promo CD-R is a stereo sync/extraction mix of the 45rpm single version, submitted to Capitol by Mark Mathews several years ago.

I should note that it's a hybrid SACD with both high-resolution and redbook layers, another advantage over DVD-A.

This time from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), an SACD release of the 1996 stereo mix.

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-45343-the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-numbered-limited-edition-hybrid-sacd.aspx

No topic for this year's Summer Love Songs?

[koff] bootleg [koff]

Track is the same as the released version, solo vocal is female.

I was given a copy of this female vocal many many years ago on a cassette, sounded like it was dubbed off of a scratchy acetate. Any idea who the vocalist is?

Counterfeit bootlegs.....who'da thunk it?

I rescued one of these from the library of the radio station I was employed at. The photo is not mine (digital camera not handy):

The master mix is slowed to the point that the first time I heard it, I thought it was Carl singing the bridge as well as the verses...had no idea it was Marilyn.

I don't think Groovin' Garrett and I are in any real disagreement.  Except for the Motown stuff: I was told the "discarded masters" story by one of the Mercury mastering engineers who, when he worked for MCA, had been tasked with making shinola from the sh*t, as he put it.   I would like to know more on the subsequent history (that's not a "prove it!" challenge, I just like to know this stuff).  Now maybe some of the higher-quality items turned up subsequently, and as I said the Rhino people happily pointed out that the recording engineers kept high-quality dubs of mono masters, so good source material existed, and now it is being used.  So far so good.   

The Atlantic info I got from one of their box sets, and I'm not surprised some of their masters were stored elsewhere, but certainly the session tapes are gone, hence no Coltrane or Ray Charles outtakes beyond what was located elsewhere.

I never said "Tommy" was lost, I said it was rumored to be lost, a rumor started by Kit Lambert himself back in the day.

If the "Days of Future Passed" mixdown got damaged, I can see the choice to remix, though as you say if there's a good safety dub they could have used that.  And if the band prefers the remix that's fine, just be aware it's different from the original LP.  Which it is.

Yup, in agreement for the most part, Doc. 

VERY few Atlantic multis exist. Very sad indeed.

Both the master and US safety of DOFP exist and are playable...it's the Moody Blues that keep the remix as the status quo.

As for Motown, a reputable source at UMG had told me that 90% of the mono masters were intact, and were being used for the Complete Motown Singles boxes. Doesn't mean it's gospel in any way, though. Anything's possible!

There are many stories of masters lost and found, or destroyed, in this regard the BB tape saga is not that unusual. 

Greatest loss:  Atlantic's masters for a long time were stored above a department store in Red Bank, NJ.  When the building burnt down, there they went.  Though apparently safeties were stored elsewhere so all those 1950 -1980 reissues are still coming, if a little bit hissy.

Next greatest loss: when MCA bought Motown they decided to discard all the mono 45 masters and all the LP master tapes to save space.  The stereo masters were, literally, dubbed to consumer 4-track reels with lots of bleed-through, and that's all they have now.  Which is why all the earlier Motown CD reissues stink, except for the "Big Box of Soul" Rhino put out in the 90s.  For that box, the compilers went to the old-time recording engineers, who were smart enough to make their own personal high-quality safeties of their handiwork over the years for their personal collections.  Those CD reissues sound great.

The Moody Blues' "Days of Future Passed" LP master was lost, though the mutlitracks survive.  So the most recent CD reissues are all distinctly different remixes from the LP version.

The original two-track mixdown of the Who's "Tommy" was rumored to have been destroyed, the earliest CDs were dubbed from safeties, and a digital remix was issued in the 90s.   But the LP master turned up a couple of years ago and was reissued on CD and LP.

King Crimson's first LP master has gone missing for some decades now, but in the Virgin tape vaults someone found the final mixdowns of all the tracks from the first LP.  This was not the original LP master - these reels were the next-to-last step in that process.   The final mixdowns were not yet joined/cross-faded into the final sequence.  So for the most recent anniversary reissue,  those joins and cross-fades were done digitally and issued on a HDCD disc.  Because these tracks were not dubbed down another generation for cross-fade purposes, they actually sound a bit cleaner and so this is probably the best way to hear that first album.

And now we have the new BB remixes done from just-discovered session reels no one thought still existed. So yes there is always hope.

Most of these scenarios aren't as drastic as you speculate them to be.

The Atlantic warehouse fire destroyed a great many multi-track session masters. The mono and stereo mixdown masters, album assembly reels, etc., were stored elsewhere and still exist.

MCA did not destroy Motown mono or stereo masters. Dubs of mono masters were made on to compilation reels for reference, but the masters were not destroyed. The extensive Hip-O sets were 90-95% from mono master tapes.

The 1967 stereo mixdown master of Days Of Future Passed was never lost, it is still in UMG's posession in England, as is a dub in UMG's vault in the US. The original stereo mixdown has been used as recently as the Time Traveller CD boxed set. There are two theories as to why the album was remixed in 1976; one is the stereo mixdown was damaged or worn, the other being to lift the layers of "murk" from the sound mix. Whichever one is true, the remix has become the band's preference and has been the basis for all reissues, LP and CD, since 1976.

The stereo mixdown master of Tommy was never "lost"....Pete Townsend had it the entire time.